Major Schools of Thought in Psychology

As a result to concluding the chapter “How to Think Straight about Psychology” by Keith E. Stanovich, the infinite doors into Psychology have opened. I was immediately engaged into the history and conflicts between the continuity of previous and modern day psychology. It was astounding to find the amount of distaste, backed by modern psychologists, on the workings of Sigmund Freud, who I had recently thought to be the foundation to all psychology. However, after reading on about the diversity of psychology, it became apparent that the extensive amounts of subjects within the realm of this study, make it difficult for scientist and the overall population to agree on one unified idea. Psychology has criteria that is ever changing, but limited to the time period of discovery.

Plato and Socrates thought that the mind and body were separate and that mind keeps going after the body dies, later Rene Descartes agreed and did experiments to prove it

Within the curiosity of the human mind lies a variety of occurrences that have plagued philosophers, scientists, and skeptics alike. What is the part, we as a society, play in the study of the material world? Although, many have theorized, experts are only just now scratching the surface of the mental and behavioral processes of the human mind. However, within the minute distance that examiners have travelled through the world of psychology, scientists have discovered and developed a plethora of concepts, approaches, ideas, and principles that have now become relevant to our growth. Within this context, the analysis will center on the progressive history of psychology, including some of psychology’s primary contributors and their concepts. Furthermore, the major psychological approaches, and how they pertain to, and influence, society as we view it today.

Sigmund Freud’s theory is said to have probed deeper into the human mind than the others that can before him. Part of his theory was about the mind. “On the surface is consciousness, which consists of those thoughts that are the focus of our attention now, and this is seen as the tip of the iceberg. The preconscious consists of all which can be retrieved from memory. The third and most significant region is the unconscious. Here lie the processes that are the real cause of most behavior.” (McLeod, S. A., 2013) He also later established the theory that psyche is composed of id, ego and surer ego. The id functions unconsciously in reaction to the pleasure principle or basic instincts. Ego grows form the id in early childhood, and helps to maintain good behavior. Lastly the superego also said to develop in childhood, is in charge of safeguarding that honorable standards are kept. In other words it encourages us to behave ourselves.

Behaviourists focus on the influence of the environment, they chose not to be concerned with the internal mechanisms that occur inside the organism, they believe that your behaviour depends on what factors are present in the environment at any given time. Another big contributor to this approach is Ivan Pavlov who was made famous for conditioning in which he used dogs in an experiment.

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. In order to understand psychology as it today, we have to know something about its history. Additionally, we are going to see that the field of psychology is conceivable to adopt several different approaches, including the biological, behaviorist, cognitive, psychodynamic, and humanistic perspectives.

The behaviourists believed that all behaviour is learned through the environment. They suggest that we learn through classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

According to behaviourism, behaviour can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental processes. As human beings we are driven to understand who we are and how the facets of our own personality make us unique individuals. Behaviourists believed that we are born with a handful of innate responses known as stimulus response and that all of our complex behaviours are through learning by interaction with the environment

The psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud has always been argued to be one of the most controversial theories in the school of psychology. Critics have questioned how relevant the perspective of Freud is due to the fact that it holds no scientific basis. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego. This theory, known as Freud's structural theory of personality, places great emphasis on the role of unconscious psychological

In the following section I am going to evaluate two approaches in psychology like being a reasonable assumptions about human behaviour and development for me, although most psychologists might agree that no one perspective is correct or incorrect.

Finally behaviourism is based on the theoretical assumption that behaviour is learned through ones environment. This behaviour is learned through classical or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the way in which an organism learns to associate two stimuli such that one stimulus comes to elicit a response that was originally elicited only by the other stimulus (Holt, 2012). Holt describes operant learning as the way in which behaviour is influenced by consequences that follow it (Holt,

The behaviourist perspective is a scientific approach within psychology which claims that we are blank slates at birth and all human behaviour is learnt.Behaviourism was developed by John Watson in America in the early 1900s, (Cullis, T1999). Behaviourists focus on external conditions, learning and experience

* The view of modern psychologists are frequently difficult to categorize into traditional schools of thought.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, is world renowned. His view points and interpretations of human behavior that he has presented in his arguments have always made me take a deeper look at myself. He opens up a new way of seeing things. Talking about Freud, there is never a dull or boring moment, there is always some way you can look at yourself and see something you didn't see before.

In this booklet you will find an overview of all the different approaches to psychology. This will consist of the key assumptions, examples of the relevant psychologists and examples of their work, as well as an exploration into the advantages and disadvantages that some of these approaches possess.